Russ
07-06-2007, 10:45 AM
This is a nice article on the Grant Hill signing that makes all the points a Spurs fan would want to about Hill and the Spurs:
Celizic: Suns' signing of Hill worth the gamble but ...
Phoenix improves team, but can oft-injured swingman stay healthy?
OPINION
By Mike Celizic
Updated: 3:21 p.m. PT July 5, 2007
Grant Hill wants to win a championship, and there aren't any places outside of San Antonio where he'll have a better chance of doing that than in Phoenix. But let's not say just yet that he's the player who's going to raise the Suns to the zenith.
Phoenix is looking at him that way. He's a great veteran talent and a leader with a 6-8 frame, and he's a swingman who can play small forward or shooting guard. Throw him in the starting lineup with Amare Stoudemire, Raja Bell, Shawn Marion (unless he's traded) and Steve Nash, and the Suns are a better team than they were last year, maybe even a championship team.
There's no question he's a good pick-up. After having made $93 million in the past seven years, Hill figures he has enough socked away to get him and his family through a rainy day — or even a rainy three or four decades. The Suns have a salary cap exemption for a player making just under $2 million, and Hill is expected to consent to work for that paltry salary. If he gets a ring, it will have been worth it.
But whether Hill, who will be 35 in October and is running on an ankle that's undergone five surgeries, is enough to push the Suns ahead of the Spurs is a question that only the coming season will answer.
On the face of it, you have to say Hill won't be enough for a number of reasons.
The first is that the biggest reason the Suns can't get past San Antonio is they don't have Tim Duncan and the Spurs do. Duncan's a big forward; Hill's a small forward. Hill may help the offense and the defense, but he'll have no real effect on Duncan.
And if you can't deal with Duncan, you can't win a title. It's that simple.
Then there's Hill's health. He played 65 games last year, 44 more than the previous season. He played 67 games in 2004-05, but only 47 games in the three years before that. Only once since 1997-98 he has played as many as 70 games, and that was in 1999-00.
He says he's healthy, and there's no doubt that's true — at this moment. But anytime someone has had as many injuries as he has, you can't blithely announce that this year, his 13th in the league, is going to be the one he'll go through healthy. The reality is the older he gets, the more likely it is he'll get injured again.
So to be the difference, he's got to be healthy. One of the reasons he's coming to the Spurs is that coach Mike D'Antoni doesn't believe in hard practices, believing that the more a team puts on the practice court, the less it has for the game court. For Hill, who doesn't have a lot of miles left, that makes sense.
But even if he's healthy, the Suns play an up-tempo game. How well will he be able to keep up the Suns' frantic pace? How many minutes will he be able to play?
More questions.
Finally, the Suns failure to break through may have more to do with style than with tempo. Raja Bell is a great defender, but Phoenix is a team that would rather beat you with its offense than with its defense. In the playoffs, when the half-court game and getting stops is everything, they simply haven't been able to win.
Maybe Hill is the difference. He shoots just over 50 percent, and every team needs that kind of scoring efficiency. But he no longer rebounds a lot – his average is down from nearly 10 early in his career to under 4 last season – and he doesn't have great range on his jumper.
I think that the key to the Suns breaking through is Stoudemire. Last year, he was coming back from knee surgery. He's young and athletic and can be the monster in the middle a team needs to win in the West. If he can continue to grow and mature, he's the man who can be the difference.
That's why I couldn't understand why the Suns were talking about trading him for Kevin Garnett. No offense to KG — he's an all-time great talent — but if you give up your center for a high-flying forward, you're going to have a heckuva highlight reel, but you're not going to have a ring.
It makes more sense to add a Hill to Stoudemire and the rest of the team than to subtract Stoudemire for anyone.
In that sense, and given their cap problems, the Suns probably made the best move they could. Sure, a three-point shooter would have been nice, as would a bruiser up front. But if Hill is healthy, he's a great player and a savvy leader, respected by all.
The question is whether he's got enough left in the tank and whether he can stay healthy for a full season — or most of one, anyway. He's also got to finish the year on his feet and not in a hospital bed. Given his history, it's a big gamble, but one that's worth taking.
Put it this way: he gives them a better chance than they had, and he makes the team better in just about every way. Plus, he doesn't cost a lot. If he comes with risks, they're risks worth taking.
Mike Celizic writes regularly for MSNBC.com and is a freelance writer based in New York.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19621196/
Celizic: Suns' signing of Hill worth the gamble but ...
Phoenix improves team, but can oft-injured swingman stay healthy?
OPINION
By Mike Celizic
Updated: 3:21 p.m. PT July 5, 2007
Grant Hill wants to win a championship, and there aren't any places outside of San Antonio where he'll have a better chance of doing that than in Phoenix. But let's not say just yet that he's the player who's going to raise the Suns to the zenith.
Phoenix is looking at him that way. He's a great veteran talent and a leader with a 6-8 frame, and he's a swingman who can play small forward or shooting guard. Throw him in the starting lineup with Amare Stoudemire, Raja Bell, Shawn Marion (unless he's traded) and Steve Nash, and the Suns are a better team than they were last year, maybe even a championship team.
There's no question he's a good pick-up. After having made $93 million in the past seven years, Hill figures he has enough socked away to get him and his family through a rainy day — or even a rainy three or four decades. The Suns have a salary cap exemption for a player making just under $2 million, and Hill is expected to consent to work for that paltry salary. If he gets a ring, it will have been worth it.
But whether Hill, who will be 35 in October and is running on an ankle that's undergone five surgeries, is enough to push the Suns ahead of the Spurs is a question that only the coming season will answer.
On the face of it, you have to say Hill won't be enough for a number of reasons.
The first is that the biggest reason the Suns can't get past San Antonio is they don't have Tim Duncan and the Spurs do. Duncan's a big forward; Hill's a small forward. Hill may help the offense and the defense, but he'll have no real effect on Duncan.
And if you can't deal with Duncan, you can't win a title. It's that simple.
Then there's Hill's health. He played 65 games last year, 44 more than the previous season. He played 67 games in 2004-05, but only 47 games in the three years before that. Only once since 1997-98 he has played as many as 70 games, and that was in 1999-00.
He says he's healthy, and there's no doubt that's true — at this moment. But anytime someone has had as many injuries as he has, you can't blithely announce that this year, his 13th in the league, is going to be the one he'll go through healthy. The reality is the older he gets, the more likely it is he'll get injured again.
So to be the difference, he's got to be healthy. One of the reasons he's coming to the Spurs is that coach Mike D'Antoni doesn't believe in hard practices, believing that the more a team puts on the practice court, the less it has for the game court. For Hill, who doesn't have a lot of miles left, that makes sense.
But even if he's healthy, the Suns play an up-tempo game. How well will he be able to keep up the Suns' frantic pace? How many minutes will he be able to play?
More questions.
Finally, the Suns failure to break through may have more to do with style than with tempo. Raja Bell is a great defender, but Phoenix is a team that would rather beat you with its offense than with its defense. In the playoffs, when the half-court game and getting stops is everything, they simply haven't been able to win.
Maybe Hill is the difference. He shoots just over 50 percent, and every team needs that kind of scoring efficiency. But he no longer rebounds a lot – his average is down from nearly 10 early in his career to under 4 last season – and he doesn't have great range on his jumper.
I think that the key to the Suns breaking through is Stoudemire. Last year, he was coming back from knee surgery. He's young and athletic and can be the monster in the middle a team needs to win in the West. If he can continue to grow and mature, he's the man who can be the difference.
That's why I couldn't understand why the Suns were talking about trading him for Kevin Garnett. No offense to KG — he's an all-time great talent — but if you give up your center for a high-flying forward, you're going to have a heckuva highlight reel, but you're not going to have a ring.
It makes more sense to add a Hill to Stoudemire and the rest of the team than to subtract Stoudemire for anyone.
In that sense, and given their cap problems, the Suns probably made the best move they could. Sure, a three-point shooter would have been nice, as would a bruiser up front. But if Hill is healthy, he's a great player and a savvy leader, respected by all.
The question is whether he's got enough left in the tank and whether he can stay healthy for a full season — or most of one, anyway. He's also got to finish the year on his feet and not in a hospital bed. Given his history, it's a big gamble, but one that's worth taking.
Put it this way: he gives them a better chance than they had, and he makes the team better in just about every way. Plus, he doesn't cost a lot. If he comes with risks, they're risks worth taking.
Mike Celizic writes regularly for MSNBC.com and is a freelance writer based in New York.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19621196/